"The US has its dustbowl era protest songs (and their fine chroniclers Guthrie and Seeger). "

And how good those songs were, making their points not by firing exocets at specific targets and grabbing us by the lapels, but by telling the people's stories, powerful enough messages on their own without the polemic. Some of my very favourite contemporary singers get up my nose occasionally by pushing their politics (which are usually my politics too) down my throat. No names, no pack drill!